Amazon Creates Jobs for Blind People: ‘Disabled Employees Inspire Others’

Paulina Socha-Jakubowska, “Wprost”: It is estimated that there are over 100,000 blind people in Poland. Most of them are not professionally active, and the employment rate in this group does not exceed 20 percent. Meanwhile, the Amazon Logistics Center in Wrocław has launched a program that allows the employment of visually impaired people. How does the HOMER program work?

Dominika Bak-Majka: HOMER is a program aimed at blind and visually impaired people. In our Logistics Center in Bielany Wrocławskie, we have adapted three stations: goods receipt, packaging and manual parcel sorting stations. Thanks to this, we have managed to employ four blind and visually impaired people so far.

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(…) It was not an easy process, because considering that our distribution centre has an area of ​​over 100 thousand square meters, over 40 kilometers of conveyor belts, forklifts and manual trucks operate there, there are many safety issues.

The idea was born during a meeting at the Marshal’s Office, where we were asked directly whether we could adapt workplaces for blind and visually impaired people, since they have under their wings an institution that educates young people and prepares them for professional activation.

And after a few meetings, it turned out that people who finish high school or vocational school usually have a limited choice of profession: masseur, masseuse or some kind of kitchen help.

Our company created the “MigaMY” program in 2020, and it was a program aimed at deaf and hard of hearing people. (…) It was the first element of our inclusiveness and the fact that we invite people with disabilities to work for us. The next stage was the HOMER project, aimed at blind and visually impaired people.

How did you adapt these specific places and stations to be able to offer work to blind people?

First of all, we had to install voice software that issues commands regarding what should be done, what a given product should be packed in, for example.

A standard employee sees this on a monitor screen, and a blind person hears these commands. (…) But the biggest challenge was to define the communication routes in such a large space that these employees could move safely. That was important.

(…)

What does the training of such a new employee look like and is it longer than the training of an employee without a disability?

Yes. A standard employee has five weeks of such training, while employees in the “MigaMY” and Homer programs have this time extended by 50 percent.

In addition, most work stations have a problem notification system. An employee standing at his packing station, if he has a problem, can use the excellent signaling, light the appropriate alarm and then a leader, manager or person who supports this process comes to him.

(…)

What you said at the beginning, I think, is very telling, that the pool of professional opportunities for people with visual disabilities was limited to two or three positions and suddenly they got another one… I think that for such a person it is an incredible life progress, that another option has appeared that they can take advantage of.

Exactly. And besides, I think that companies should respond to what is happening in society, to how diverse it is. People are different. Thanks to this, creativity is stimulated, new ideas are created, but we also learn that being different is okay, that it can be our colleague or colleague from work.

These people have to put in a lot more effort. What is obvious to us – like commuting to work – is a challenge for them, but they break these barriers every day, and we have opened the door to a workplace where they can find their place and have the same opportunities for development as other employees.

The entire conversation can be heard here: